More you mess with the water and keep going up and down, the worse it is. Let the neo's adjust and they'll go nuts.

Hi, I'm GeToChKn, you might remember from such threads as "DIY Peat Filter" for making soft water.

The problem with it is, it's never 100% consistent, and even though the peat would lower the water, batches would be 0.2pH off, 20TDS off, etc and eventually I gave up, put my neo's back in pure tap water, crystals back in RO water, and everyone is breeding again. I have probably 150 baby fire reds right now and 7-9 berried ones after stopping messing with their water with half peat/half tap and went straight tap. It's almost 8pH/8gH/8kH, but it's stable and they are going like bunnies again. CRS are slower breeders but getting there. I was selling at least a hundred shrimp a month till I got the great "peat" idea to make my own soft water and my population took a huge hit.

Moral of the story, if you water is anything above 7pH ish, give it to the neo's. Use RO for crystals and things will be good. Playing chemist and your population will take a huge hit.

That's actually good to know. I always want to have CRS, but the Sieryu in my tank prevents that. I thought I could get away with additives, but it doesn't like it. Maybe I just get OEBTs and sell the offspring to fund a CRS tank. :P